INDIANA MAN GUILTY OF MURDER

Jerry ShnayCHICAGO TRIBUNE

A Porter County, Ind., jury Wednesday needed only four hours to convict a Gary man of the murder of a Portage gas station attendant, who was one of seven people killed in a shotgun slaying spree that terrorized northwest Indiana last year.

Although Ronald Harris, 22, didn`t pull the trigger of the shotgun that killed Harchand Dhaliwal last Dec. 13, the seven-man, five-woman jury ruled Harris was not simply an innocent bystander.

Harris, who says he saw his friend Christopher Peterson, 22, also of Gary, kill the man, faces up to 68 years in prison when he is sentenced by Judge Thomas Webber sometime within the next two months. Harris also was convicted of aiding and abetting a murder and assisting a criminal.

In the five-day trial in the Valparaiso courthouse, Harris insisted he saw Peterson shoot Dhaliwal, 54, with one blast from a 12-gauge shotgun and was only along for a ride in Peterson`s car.

The shooting spree, from October to December last year, mobilized law enforcement officials into creating a multi-agency task force to deal with the murders.

Peterson, who was arrested in January after he and Antwion McGee were charged with robbing and shooting a store manager at Southlake Mall, near Merrillville, has confessed to all the killings.

He goes on trial in Lake County, Ind. in September for five of those murders.

Defense attorney James Tsoutsouris told the jury that Harris was merely a ''square peg in a round hole'' who did nothing to assist Peterson and was a victim of a botched investigation by the task force.

But Deputy Prosecutor Gwenn Renkenberger said Harris was guilty of murdering Dhaliwal even though he didn`t fire the shot.

''The bottom line is if Harris willfully took part-he is not an innocent bystander, but is guilty of murder, just as if he pulled the trigger or took the bloody money,'' Renkenberger said.

And, she continued, Harris was just as guilty as Peterson ''if you look at the totality'' of his actions.

At issue was Harris` purported statement to FBI agents that he was with Peterson Oct. 30 when Rhonda Hammersley was killed at a Cedar Lake gas station.

Although the Cedar Lake killing took place in Lake County and Harris is not on trial for that crime, that admission made him more than just a bystander to the Portage killing, Renkenberger said.

When Harris took the witness stand Tuesday, he tearfully denied making such an admission, contending he was tricked by authorities during six hours of questioning in February.

Harris insisted he was told that if he signed the statement, he would be allowed to go home. Instead, he was immediately taken into custody and charged with murder.

FBI Agent Mark Becker conceded that he really hadn`t known if Harris was present at the killing, but pretended that he did in a ruse to get Harris to talk.

Tsoutsouris reminded the jury that Peterson never mentioned Harris in his confessions ''because Harris wasn`t involved'' and that Harris corroborated Peterson`s statement on the Portage shooting.

In addition, Harris ''was willing to testify'' against his friend, Tsoutsouris said.

Although an eyewitness to the Cedar Lake shooting identified Harris at the trial as the man who shot Hammersley, Tsoutsouris said her statements were at odds with the description she provided police of the gunman.

Carrie Jillson portrayed the killer as a clean-shaven, slenderly built white man with long, stringy, collar-length hair. That composite sketch was used throughout the investigation.

Harris is a husky, light-skinned black man who, according to defense witnesses, has had close-cropped hair and a beard and moustache for the last three years.